September

The
Copa America continued with Brazil making some headway, though not impressing
critics, with Carlos Alberto Pareira’s tactics.

Denmark,
once again, showed it had arrived on the world stage with two key wins. They
convingly defeated France (3-1) in a friendly with a young Michael Laudrup
impressing, but most importantly England were defeated at Wembely with an Allan
Simonsen penalty kick. This edged them closer to Euro qualification.

Many
consider this win as the start of Sepp Piontek’s ‘Danish Dynamite’ generation.

Gyorgy Mezzey started his reign as Hungary Manager
by tying West Germany in a friendly, where Rudi Voeller scored his first goal
for West Germany.

The
previous record holder had been Fernando Chalana who was three months older.

Marco
van basten made his debut for Holland in their Euro qualification win over Iceland
(3-0). Two weeks later, van Basten scored his first goal for Holland in a
friendly tie (1-1) with neighbors Belgium.

Uruguay’s
Barrios was sent off for tripping the Referee in the 27th minute of
their Friendly vs. Scotland.

October

France’s
Marius Tresor earned his record breaking 64th appearance in a
friendly vs. Spain, breaking Roger Marche’s record. For Spain, the presence of
Andoni Goikoetchea was controversial. He was playing despite being suspended
domestically after a vicious foul on Maradona in a Athletic Bilbao-Barcelona
League match.

Italy
won its first game since the 1982 World Cup Final by defeating Greece in a
Friendly.

The
Italians, already eliminated from the Euros, suffered further humiliation in
the group by losing at home to Sweden (0-3) at Naples. This was Italy’s worst
home defeat in 28 years.

The
West Germans edged closer to qualification and destroyed Austria’s hopes by
defeating them (3-0) at home.

Northern
Ireland were defeated in Turkey in the same group.

The
USSR appeared to get closer to qualification by defeating Poland (2-0).

Portugal
themselves earned an important victory at Poland with Carlos Manuel scoring the
decisive winner to maintain pressure on the Soviets.

East
Germany’s Joachim Streich earned his record breaking 95th appearance
in the Euro qualification win over Switzerland (3-0).

Belgium
qualified from this group after a tie (1-1) in Scotland.

Yugoslavia
defeated Norway to get closer to qualification.

Michael
Rummenigge, younger brother of captain Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, made his national
team debut in the Germans win over Turkey (5-1).